Feature
New Frontiers in Spatiotemporally Structured Light
Coupling the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom of light is providing a new perspective on the behavior and applications of pulsed optical beams.
Spatiotemporal spectral support for a space-time wave packet on the surface of the free-space light cone. [Image courtesy of B.L. Turo, CREOL, University of Central Florida]
Optical fields are described in terms of their spatial, temporal and polarization degrees of freedom (DoFs). Conventionally, these DoFs are modulated independently of each other. The past few years have witnessed a paradigm shift whereby the insights developed in these separate endeavors are merging to lay the foundation for spatiotemporally (ST) structured light, in which the spatial and temporal DoFs are jointly modulated.
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